Printable and Stretchable Temperature-Strain Dual-Sensing Nanocomposite with High Sensitivity and Perfect Stimulus Discriminability

Skin-mountable physical sensors that can individually detect mechanical deformations with high strain sensitivity within a broad working strain range and temperature variations with accurate temperature resolution are a sought-after technology. Herein, a stretchable temperature and strain dual-parameter sensor that can precisely detect and distinguish strain from temperature stimuli without crosstalk is developed, based on a printable titanium carbide (MXene)-silver nanowire (AgNW)-PEDOT:PSS-tellurium nanowire (TeNW) nanocomposite. With this dual-parameter sensor, strain and temperature are effectively transduced into electrically isolated signals through the electrically conductive MXene-AgNW and thermoelectric PEDOT:PSS-TeNW components, respectively. In addition, the synergistic effect between the MXene nanosheets and PEDOT:PSS also greatly enhances the stretchability and sensitivity of the sensing devices. These properties enable the nanocomposite to decouple responses between temperature and strain stimuli with an accurate temperature resolution of 0.2 °C and a gauge factor of up to 1933.3 in a working strain range broader than 60%.